[b]Watchman Nee on the Indwelling Life of Christ
"God's normal for a Christian can be summarized as follows: I no longer live! Now it is Christ who lives His life in me (Gal. 2:20)."
"Because of our limited comprehension of the state of our fallen nature, we do not have true appreciation of how helpless the natural man really is. Thus, we still have some expectations in ourselves. And as a result of this faulty line of thought, we think that we can please God."
"The blood can wash away my sins, but it cannot wash away my 'old man' (Rom. 6:6). For this we are in need of the Cross, that the old man may be crucified. Though the blood deals with sins, it is the Cross that deals with the sinner."
"At the beginning of the Christian life, we are concerned with our doing and not with our being; we are distressed more by what we have done than by what we are. We think that if only we could rectify certain things we would be good Christians; therefore, we set out to change our actions. We try to please the Lord, but we find that something within us does not want to please Him. And the more we try to rectify matters externally, the more we realize how deep-seated the problem really is."
Since we came into this world by birth, we must go out by death. To do away with our sinfulness, we must do away with our life. But how do we die? It is not by trying to kill ourselves. Rather, we die by recognizing that God has already dealt with us in Christ. This is summed up in the apostle's statement, 'As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death' (Rom. 6:3)."
"The Cross terminates the first creation, and out of death there is brought in a new creation in Christ: the Second Man."
"God's way of deliverance is altogether different from man's way. Man's way is to try to suppress sin by seeking to overcome it; God's way is to remove the sinner. Many Christians mourn over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well. But God's means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger; rather, it is by making us weaker and weaker. God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man, but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything, but by entirely removing him from the scene of action."
"It is not intellectual knowledge at all, but an opening of the eyes of the heart - to see what we have in Christ."
"In dealing with Christ, God has dealt with the Christian; in dealing with the Head, He has dealt with all the members. It is altogether wrong for us to think that we can experience anything pertaining to spiritual life merely in ourselves, apart from Him."
"Grace means that God has done something for me; law means that I must do something for God."
"The law makes our weakness manifest. Had it not been for the law, we would never have known how weak we are. The law is what exposes our true nature."
"The law was not given with the expectation that we would keep it; it was given in the full knowledge that we would break it. And when we have broken it so completely as to be convinced of our utter need, then the law has served its full purpose. It has been our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that in us He Himself may fulfill it (Gal. 3:24)."
"What does it mean to be delivered from the law? It means that I am henceforth no longer going to try to do anything to please Go; for if I do, then I immediately place myself under the law. Therefore, I have alternative; I must allow Christ to fulfill the law in me. And finally, I see that this alone is what is pleasing to God (Matt. 5:17). This is deliverance from the law!"
"It is only after having reached the point of utter despair in ourselves - so that we cease even to try - that we put our trust in the Lord to manifest His resurrection life in us. The sooner we give up trying, the better. For it is only by ceasing in ourselves that we give place to the Holy Spirit. And then, we will see a power stronger than ourselves carrying us through."
"As long as we are trying to do anything, He can do nothing. It is because of our trying that we fail."
"We all need to come to the point where we say, "Lord, I am unable to do anything for You, but I trust You to do everything in me."
"One faulty line of thinking that is prevalent among Christians is this: we know that justification is ours through the Lord Jesus and that it requires no work on our part, but we think sanctification is dependent on our own efforts. We know we can receive forgiveness only by our entire reliance on the Lord, yet we believe we can obtain deliverance by doing something ourselves. After salvation, the old habit of "doing" reasserts itself, and we begin our old self-efforts again. However, the Bible declares that, in both justification and sanctification, He is the doer. 'It is God who works in you' (Phil. 2:13)."
"Living in the Spirit means that I trust the Holy Spirit to do in me what I cannot do myself. It is not a case of trying, but of trusting; not a case of struggling, but of resting in Him."
"We think of the Christian life as a "changed life", but it is not. What God offers us is an "exchanged life", a "substituted life", and Christ is our substitute within."
"Many believers have a wrong understanding of sanctification. It is commonly conceived that every item of our lives should be holy. But that is not holiness; rather, it is the fruit of holiness. Holiness is Christ."